Immersive Exhibition ‘MURALS’ Shortlisted for Design Cannes Lions

Immersive experience, ‘MURALS’, has picked up a Design: Digital Installations & Events Shortlist at this year’s Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

Directed by Aggressive’s Alex Topaller and Dan Shapiro, the innovative work places viewers face to face with the devastation wrought by the war in Ukraine, and brings to life the sites of Banksy’s murals there. Told via 3D scanning technologies and Unreal Engine, ‘MURALS’ follows stories of the lives lost, whilst simultaneously highlighting the strength of perseverance, resilience, and hope. 

The international creative collaboration was spearheaded by Ukrainian 3D artist and creative Artem Ivanenko, after he used 3D scanning to capture the realities of the devastation caused by war in his hometown of Irpin. It was produced by Radosława Bardes (ATM Virtual) and Maciej Żemojcin (PixelRace), Mriya Production, and Sten Kristian Saluveer, while Tigrelab handled art direction and CG/Unreal animation. The Polish Film Institute co-financed the project, and it was backed by Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture.

Since its premiere at last May’s Cannes Film Festival, ‘MURALS’ has won an Audience Award for ‘Best Art and XR’ at BFI London Film Festival, a CICLOPE Festival Bronze Award, an ADC Awards Bronze Cube, a Webby Awards ‘Best Experience’ nomination, and two AICP Next Awards nominations for ‘Best Experiential’ and ‘Best Purpose Driven’.

Over the last six months, through festivals and museum exhibits, ‘MURALS’ has also screened to thousands of viewers in France, UK, Poland, Estonia, Switzerland, Denmark, Germany, Italy and the US. On February 24th 2024, to mark the two year anniversary of the invasion, it was projected simultaneously on embassies and modern art museums in four cities around the world: Warsaw, Washington DC, Florence and Tallinn.

Additionally, the project has been featured in over a hundred publications and TV segments, including Variety, Guardian, Marie Claire, Deadline, Yahoo, Novaya Gazetta, Sky Arte, Business Doc Europe, Radio Svoboda, Stash Media, Screen Dailv, Kultuur, BR1 and many others.

Alex Topaller, partner, Aggressive, comments, “We are humbled to learn that ‘MURALS’ got shortlisted in Design at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity — wonderful to share this honour with our friends at ATM Virtual, PixelRace, Mriya Production and Tigrelab, and everyone who donated so much time, talent and effort to make this project a reality.”